Viva Kuwait Q1 net profit falls 5 pct

The Saudi Telecom Co (STC) subsidiary made a net profit of 9.8 million dinars ($32.5 million) in the three months to Mar. 31, it said in a statement. This compares with a profit of 10.4 million dinars in the year-earlier period.Reuters | Updated: April 25, 2016, 08:30 IST

DUBAI: Viva Kuwait reported a 5 percent fall in first-quarter net profit on Sunday, despite an uptick in revenues for the telecom operator.

The Saudi Telecom Co (STC) subsidiary made a net profit of 9.8 million dinars ($32.5 million) in the three months to Mar. 31, it said in a statement. This compares with a profit of 10.4 million dinars in the year-earlier period.

SICO Bahrain had forecast Viva Kuwait would make a quarterly profit of 10.7 million dinars.

Viva did not give any reason for the decline in year-on-year profit in the statement. However, the operator noted that first-quarter revenue was 70.5 million dinars, up 6 percent from a year ago.

Viva competes with Ooredoo Kuwait, a unit of Qatar's Ooredoo, and Zain.

STC upped its stake in Viva to 51.8 percent, from 26 percent, earlier this year after making a buyout offer to all other shareholders. ($1 = 0.3020 Kuwaiti dinars) (Reporting by Tom Arnold; Editing by David French)

Separately, RCom initiated contempt proceedings in the apex court against the Department of Telecommunications, blaming it for delaying a spectrum sale that would have enabled dues to be paid to Ericsson and lenders.